rr,
my point was to make sure that you and I were talking about the same thing.
we pay that way. the only way it works is to have the same people on the job from start to finish. essentially they will get a set rate for that job paid out as they progress.
for example, you can pay $20 per outlet or $20 per $100 revenue. If your outlet is $100, you can pay them $10 per outlet the week that they rough, and $10 the week they finish. Or you can add up all the work they produced for a given week and pay them based on that.
The only way to do this on TI or installations is to have set unit prices for everything that is going in. These prices can be particular to that job, but they must be determined and known. If you bid a project per opening, this will give you the unit price you need.
The key is to give the mechanics all the information as to the prices per item. Let them figure out how much they want to make.
Personally, i disagree with Iwire, i'd rather take a job this way (heck as contractors we take every job this way). The way I see hourly rates is that the mechanic and the contractor are going in different directions. The way for the mechanic to make more money is to work slower and get OT. This causes the contractor to make less.
By going with a piecework type setup, the mechanic gets rewarded for getting more done, not by putting in longer hours. This lets the contractor make more money. kind of a win/win.
for service work it's even easier to pay this way.
